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| Sheep following their shepherd. (Credit) |
True religion consists, in large part, in the affections ... and this begins with the initial step of saving faith all the way through to final perseverance. But how can the natural man, who "loves darkness" (John 3:19), work up any affections or desire for God? or apprehend His beauty and excellence? We know that human reasoning is never free from the effects of sin, and that people deny God, not because they lack evidence, but because their hearts are rebellious. So the unbelievers' problem is ethical first and then intellectual and thus he/she requires a supernatural work of God to understand and apprehend spiritual truth as revealed in Scripture. Those who know facts, therefore, are not the same as those who forsake sin and come to love God. We must therefore appeal to the entire person and not merely their intellect. God is hidden from man because he loves sin and remains in hostile rebellion against God. This antagonism for the gospel is seated in the affections, not because we lack data or are not smart enough. So we appeal to the heart because God is not just a precept or an axiom as found in mathematics. To come to faith in Christ one must first desire Christ, perceive and take delight in His unmatched beauty, and have a love for Him that is greater than a love of sin. Faith will never "just happen' out of thin air but actually requires that we desire Him, for we only choose that which we most desire. But to be sure, the Scriptures teach that these holy affections are not produced by our unregenerate human nature (Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14). And since the root of faith cannot be indifferent or neutral, a full orbed gospel is not merely a list of impersonal propositions for our intellectual assent, but it is proclaiming the full person of Christ in His love for sinners shown in His life, death and resurrection. Words are not enough, however, to persuade those bent on rebellion because spiritual knowledge, which is relational, requires a new sense of God's unsurpassed excellence ... and this is possessed only by the regenerate. Paul, when speaking to the Thessalonians makes this clear when he says, "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction..." (1 Thess 1:5).
The propositions, Christ is Lord and Christ is Savior are obviously understood intellectually by anyone who reads or hears Scripture. The words are written down on the page of the Bible making it an item of knowledge that is objective. But this knowledge would appear to lack an affective element wherein the subject reading the text actually takes delight in or desires it. So true spiritual knowledge only comes as the truth is desired by the subject, a knowledge which subjectively participates in the truth of the propositions and Person of Christ presented. This means illumination and regeneration are required, because prior to conversion a person is incapable of perceiving spiritual knowledge (1 Cor 2:14, 1 John 4:2, 14, 5:20). Instead, humanity willfully attempts to suppress and pervert true knowledge (Romans 1:18). Thus we can see there is no lack of capacity to believe, nor are humans intellectually ignorant, rather it is because sinful rebellion rules their hearts that men refuse to believe. So the difference between the regenerate and unregenerate is the relationship each has with the Holy Spirit. Both know God, one as an enemy and the other as friend ... and only the Spirit can confer spiritual knowledge which the subject delights in. This knowledge is found in the Word of God but is only apprehended through the regenerative work of Holy Spirit. Hence spiritual knowledge is communicated by the Spirit via revelation which is the only way one can be enabled to see the beauty, harmony, truth and excellence of the Scriptural Text. John Calvin, describing this spiritual work said,
"Indeed the Word of God is like the sun, shining upon all those to whom it is proclaimed, but with no effect among the blind. Now, all of us are blind by nature in this respect... Accordingly, it cannot penetrate into our minds unless the Spirit, as the inner teacher, through his illumination makes entry for it." (Calvin's Institutes 3.2.34.)
Taken from "Biblical Regeneration and Affectional Theology."
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